1 Penny - Victoria 3rd portrait (1895–1901)

One row for each year the 1 Penny - Victoria 3rd portrait was struck. Prices are medians of verified sold listings matched to that year from the listing: circulated is worn condition up to Extremely Fine, uncirculated is About Uncirculated or better. A count in brackets means fewer than three sales behind the figure; a grey figure marked "type" is the median across every year, shown where that year has no sale of its own yet. Most types have been searched year by year only since October 2026, so later years are still filling in. Use the grade table below for a price by condition across all years.

About the 1895 1 Penny - Victoria

The 1895 1 Penny - Victoria is a circulating 1 penny coin issued from 1895 to 1901, struck in bronze. It weighs 9.45g and measures 30.8mm across. Reverse design: Seated figure of Britannia right, with trident in left hand and shield bearing the Union flag in right, sea behind, denomination above and date in exergue.

Mintage figures are recorded for 7 years between 1895 and 1901, 145,020,900 coins in all. 1895 is the scarcest date, with 5,395,800 struck. It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 1971), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

The 1891 committee on coin design ran a competition for a new portrait, and Thomas Brock's veiled head replaced Boehm's Jubilee head on the gold and silver in 1893. The Royal Mint Museum's 1906 catalogue records that Brock's bust was adopted for the bronze coins in 1895. Wikipedia dates the proclamation authorising the new penny to 11 May 1895.

It was struck every year from 1895 to 1901, and 1901-dated pennies continued until Edward VII's coinage was ready in May 1902. Output rose sharply after the first year: 5,395,830 in 1895, then between 14,296,836 (1898) and 31,778,109 (1900) for the later dates in Coin Hunter's figures. CoinVarieties notes that 1901 is the date most often found uncirculated, which suggests many were saved at the end of the reign.

The obverse shows the elderly Queen wearing a small diadem partly covered by a veil, with a necklace, earring and the Garter riband and star. Brock modelled it and George William de Saulles engraved it. The legend VICTORIA DEI GRA BRITT REGINA FID DEF IND IMP adds her title of Empress of India, which first appeared on the coinage in 1893.

The reverse is Leonard Charles Wyon's seated Britannia with trident and shield, modified by de Saulles. The largest change was the removal of the lighthouse and ship, leaving Britannia alone with the sea. ONE PENNY runs around her and the date sits in the exergue.

Varieties and errors

The 1895 penny comes with two reverses, the trident head 2 mm or 1 mm from the P of PENNY, which Tony Clayton says also differ in tide height. For 1897 there is a scarce high tide reverse, and Coin Hunter lists an 1897 with a raised dot after the O of ONE. No mint errors specific to the type are documented.

Collecting notes

Clayton calls the Old Head pennies fairly common, so the interest lies in the 1895 reverses and the 1897 varieties. Measure the 1895 trident gap with a scale rather than by eye. Clayton notes that the basic Britannia reverse stayed similar on every penny to 1970, and the Edward VII penny followed with a new portrait and a 1902 low tide variety of its own.